Archived: Springfield Medical Centre

Updated 4 October 2018

Springfield Medical Centre provides primary medical services from a registered location at 301 Main Street, Nottingham, NG6 8ED. Further information about Springfield Medical Centre can be found on the practice’s website .

The practice provides primary medical services under a General Medical Services contract to approximately 2700 patients in a residential area of Nottingham. The practice’s services are commissioned by Nottingham City Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

The practice is registered with the CQC as a partnership of two GPs (one male and one female). However, one of the GP partner now worked as a regular locum and another partner was being added. The practice told us that they had applied to the CQC to reflect this recent change. The team also consisted of another regular locum GP (male) who covered the main GP when they were on leave. There was a practice nurse and and healthcare assistant (both female) along with a team of administration staff. The practice manager (female) and the business manager (male) had defined roles on the day to day management of the service.

The provider is registered to provide the following regulated activities:

• Maternity and midwifery services;
• Diagnostic and screening procedures;
• Treatment of disease, disorder or injury;
• Surgical procedures.

The area served by the practice is in the most deprived decile, meaning it falls into the most deprived 10% of areas nationally. The level of income deprivation affecting children is significantly higher than local and national averages. The level of income deprivation affecting older people is marginally higher than the local average and significantly higher than the national average.

The practice is open between 8am and 6.30pm Monday to Friday and weekend extended hours appointments are available through hub working arrangements. When the service is closed out of hours services are provided through the NHS 111 service.

Updated 4 October 2018

This practice is rated as Good overall. The service was first inspected in November 2015 and rated good overall. It was inspected again in February 2018 and rated inadequate overall.

The key questions at this inspection are rated as:

Are services safe? – Good

Are services effective? – Good

Are services caring? – Good

Are services responsive? – Good

Are services well-led? - Good

We carried out an announced comprehensive inspection at Springfield Medical Centre on 20 August 2018. The inspection was carried out to follow up on breaches of regulations identified during our previous inspection in February 2018. Patients were potentially at risk of harm because systems were not operated effectively manage risks. There were some processes in place for disseminating NICE guidance but there was no evidence of discussion of NICE guidance within the practice. Data from the Quality and Outcomes Framework showed patient outcomes were below local and average such as those for diabetes. There were limited mechanisms in place to review performance and quality of the care delivered to patients.

At this inspection we found:

• The practice had made significant improvements since our previous inspection to improve the service.
• The practice had clear systems to manage risk so that safety incidents were less likely to happen. When incidents did happen, the practice learned from them and improved their processes.
• The practice had made improvements to its risk management process to keep patients safe, including those for dealing with high risk medicines and patient safety alerts.
• The practice routinely reviewed the effectiveness and appropriateness of the care it provided. It ensured that care and treatment were delivered according to evidence-based guidelines. Minutes of clinical meetings we looked at showed National Institute for Health and Excellence (NICE) guidance was shared and discussed.
• The practice monitored achievement for the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF) and had made improvements where identified. Most recent data supplied by the practice showed that QOF achievement was in line with local and national averages.
• Staff involved and treated patients with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. The practice had worked to improve in areas identified in the national GP patient survey for satisfaction scores for consultations with GPs.
• Patients found the appointment system easy to use and reported that they were able to access care when they needed it.
• Governance processes were strengthened and we saw action plans in place to review performance and improve quality of the care delivered to patients.
• There was evidence of continuous learning and improvement.

The areas where the provider should make improvements are:

• Encourage patients to join the Patient Participation Group (PPG) in the practice to reflect a range of patient population groups.
• Continue to identify ways in which the uptake of childhood immunisation for under five-year olds could be further improved
• Continue to identify ways to improve cancer screening, particularly for breast screening.

I am taking this service out of special measures. This recognises the significant improvements made to the quality of care provided by this service.

Professor Steve Field CBE FRCP FFPH FRCGP
Chief Inspector of General Practice

Please refer to the detailed report and the evidence tables for further information.

Updated 4 October 2018

Updated 4 October 2018

Updated 4 October 2018

Updated 4 October 2018

Updated 4 October 2018

Updated 4 October 2018